We are always delighted to receive updates from London Air Ambulance and feel privileged to be able to support them in the amazing work they do. Here is their latest update to us:
London’s Air Ambulance have a proud history of pioneering new ways to save lives. Thanks to the ground-breaking treatments we’ve developed, people who would have died at the scene of their injury a few years ago are now surviving.
But there are still some patients whose injuries are so severe that they don’t survive. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains the most common cause of death and disability in people under 40 years old in the UK. Despite advances in injury-related mortality over the last 30 years, the same improvements have not been seen in outcomes from TBI worldwide.
With thanks to a grant from The Hospital Saturday Fund, we have been able to improve our understanding of TBI. The Head Injury Research Fellow has completed a retrospective data review at The Royal London Hospital which challenges traditional thinking by identifying a significant patient cohort that suffered a cardiovascular response to their head injury. Key findings show that these patients are young and more likely to die, highlighting an urgent need for novel therapeutic options to save more lives.
Your support has also enabled us to start a prospective multi-centre service evaluation of patients with a TBI attended to by London’s Air Ambulance and taken to one of London’s four Major Trauma Centres.
Project findings have been shared more widely through The Institute of Pre-Hospital Care’s educational programme. Wider project learnings and reflections have been shared through the submission of a poster at the Brain Injury Conference 2019 and a paper to the Emergency Medicine Journal.
Thank you – your support is improving understanding of severe TBI and creating a knowledge base to drive improvements in patient care.
Tanya Moss, Philanthropy Manager
To find out more, please visit: https://www.londonsairambulance.org.uk/
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